Page 6 - SST Class 05

Axis, North Pole and South Pole

Just rotate the globe. You can see that it rotates on two points on which it is set on the
stand. Of these two points, one is at the top and the other at the bottom. The top point
is called the North Pole and the bottom point is called the South Pole .

If you join these two poles with an imaginary line through the globe, this line will be
called its axis . It is along this axis that the globe rotates. So is the case with the earth.

Studying the Earth

The earth is very large, we cannot study it altogether.
So, we divide it into some parts. For this, we draw Know It!
some imaginary lines on the globe. These lines are v Ptolemy was a Greek astronomer.
He is believed to have invented the
not there on the earth. We draw these lines in
system of latitudes and longitudes.
horizontal and vertical directions. The horizontal
lines are called latitudes and the vertical lines are
called longitudes .

Latitudes
Latitudes are horizontal lines. The longest latitude North Pole

is called the Equator . It is drawn midway between Parallels of
Latitude
the North Pole and the South Pole. Thus, this line
divides the earth into two parts. The part above the
Equator is the northern part and is called Northern
Hemisphere ; and the part below the Equator is the
southern part and is called Southern Hemisphere .
Northern
Some more latitudes are drawn parallel to the Southern Hemisphere
Equator. As they are parallel to each other, they Hemisphere Equator
never meet as they have equal distance everywhere.
They are also called Parallels of Latitude .
Latitudes
A total of 90 latitudes are drawn in each
hemisphere. Thus, there are 90 latitudes in the
Northern Hemisphere and 90 latitudes in the Know It!
Southern Hemisphere. The latitudes in the Northern v If you cut the globe into two
equal parts, each part will be
Hemisphere are called North Latitudes , and those
called a hemisphere.
in the Southern Hemisphere are called South
Latitudes .
All latitudes are marked in degrees. The Equator is marked 0°. The smallest latitudes

are North Pole and South Pole, and both of them are marked 90°.

6 Contemporary Social Science-5